Pope Francis addressed a conference on “Child Dignity in the Digital World” (here). This Church-sponsored conference was no doubt scheduled long ago, with the pope as its star attraction. The Vatican probably felt he could improve his low ratings on child abuse by denouncing pornography. The timing was unfortunate, however, as the Vatican had just protected one of its senior diplomats from multiple charges of child pornography (Vatican Uses Diplomatic Immunity for Child Pornography; Vatican Doubles Down on Child Pornographer).

With a straight face, Pope Francis denounced the evils of online pornography, and asked the nations of the world to act together to combat this most dangerous vice: “Let us work together so that we will always have the right, the courage and the joy to be able to look into the eyes of the children of our world.” He said this right after refusing to cooperate with both American authorities and Canadian authorities regarding the Vatican’s diplomatic pornographer. Instead, he instead on using the Vatican’s sovereign immunity to protect the alleged criminal.

Needless to say, neither the Vatican press corp nor other reporters raised any questions about the disparity between Pope Francis’ preaching and his behavior. Nor did anyone bring up the Church’s decades of misconduct and cover-ups concerning the sexual abuse of children. If Pope Francis sodomized a child in public, they’d probably call it a new sacrament.